Art and Museums

Museums institutionalize art and help it to develop a hierarchy. Most people think this is negative for art, but this is not the case. Museums provide the medium for which artists interact with the general population.

Museums create a structuring of art. In order for an artist to become known, their work must be placed in a museum. For this to happen, the artist must accept the role of the institution of art. Art is thus "formalized" such as any other disciplines criteria for working. The artist is forced to work within the community to become accepted. Art that is displayed in a museum is labeled as "good" art. While that which is not accepted is thrown out. In the age of modern art, this ensures that the quality of art is continually thought provoking or particularly germane to the art world in some way. If we did not have the formal structures of art, anyone and almost everyone would attempt to cash in on being an artist. True art would thus become indistinguishable in a flooded market. Art curators are also more apt to be better judges of good art than the average personal due to their formal education.

By displaying art in museums, a relationship between the viewer and the artist is evoked. We go to museums not only to see art but rather to consume it. The museum gives the artist a "meeting place" or an institution where this happens, just as sports stadiums allow sports to be played. Museums, for the general viewing public and not the artists themselves, is merely a housing place for art. The museum staff also creates an atmosphere by the set up of rooms. By putting similar or different pieces in the same room or many paintings of the same artist, the public is able to gain more perspective. This arrangement allows the public to consider art from differing perspectives, ultimately changing the meaning of the painting.

"Ode on a Grecian Urn"

John Keats's poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" presents an image of the eternal nature of art. The narrator then compares this to the brevity of human life. Yet, there is central irony in the poem between these. The "eternal" urn is created with images of temporal life.

The struggle between the eternal and temporal ultimately causes one to appreciate their life. The narrator begins the poem by stating that the "unheard" melodies of the urn "play on" (Keats 12). Because the urn speaks through the images painted on it, it contains a message that will remain for the ages. While on the other hand, "heard melodies are sweet," yet they are fleeting since sound is grounded in time and human perception. The metaphor between the continuing unspoken song of the urn and the brevity of real song demonstrates that the urn is eternal. However, on this eternal piece of art, there are images of fleeting human life. For example, the narrator recalls a "fair youth" that "never canst... kiss" (15,18). This lover, ready to kiss his beloved, is unable to because they are not doing so in the painting. They are in stuck in this position forever. In essence, the eternal urn is composed of images of fleeting human life. This creates a situation of irony for the eternal is stamped with the images of the temporal. Yet, if the temporal can be so enjoyed in art, the eternal, our temporal lives must resonate through the universe.

The eternal urn is a thing of a beauty for being a celebration of both the woes and joys of human existence. The narrator's love of the vase demonstrates how human life is connected with good art. Keats ultimately creates the same concept through his work of art the poem itself. By his simple musings on an urn, we see a fragment of the poet's short life. But now his wondering still resound some two hundred years later. Thus, the poem is a call to action to enjoy the fleeting nature of life.